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<title>her name was aditi hilli by fricklefracklefloof</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26889085">her name was aditi hilli</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fricklefracklefloof/pseuds/fricklefracklefloof'>fricklefracklefloof</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Fluff, basically jesper and marya bonding, god i am sobbing just writing this again, haven't written a oneshot in a hot minute i am returning to my roots, jesper is a momma's boy, jesper misses his mom, soft, the google doc for this was named "ugly crying", this is the softest thing i've ever written</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:33:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,256</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26889085</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fricklefracklefloof/pseuds/fricklefracklefloof</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jesper bonds with Marya and remembers his own mother.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jesper Fahey &amp; Aditi Hilli, Jesper Fahey &amp; Marya Hendriks, Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck, Marya Hendriks &amp; Wylan Van Eck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>her name was aditi hilli</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was a beautiful morning in the Van Eck garden. Ketterdam’s normally dreary climate had blessed them with a sunny day, so Marya Van Eck was outside on the grass with her easel. The warm sun and the lovely smell in the air invigorated Jesper, making his first walk of the day much sweeter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Jes,” Marya called as he passed, using the nickname that Wylan and his friends called him by. It warmed his heart to think that Marya was friendly with him enough to use nicknames.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Morning, Mrs. Van—Marya,” Jesper replied with a warm smile, striding across the grass as she invited him over. Wylan’s mother was as passionate about art as he was, and although it didn’t interest Jesper as much, he admired their talent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I have something for you,” Marya said softly, reaching down to her supplies resting on the ground to pull out a small canvas. She placed it in Jesper’s hands. “I’ve never been to Novyi Zem, but I tried my best to paint what you described. I hope you like it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jesper’s hands closed around the canvas. It was a beautiful rendition of his home, brightly painted orange jurda blossoms popping against the vast blue Zemeni skies. Marya had paid attention to every detail he’d provided her. And instead of her usual addition of Wylan in all of her landscapes, she’d painted a tiny Jesper in the distance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he breathed. “It’s perfect.” Normally he made some kind of lewd remark when he saw himself appear in Wylan’s art, but for once he understood that likely wasn’t appropriate around Wylan’s own mother.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’d love to visit sometime.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jesper tried not to frown. Marya was certainly doing better nowadays compared to the first few weeks when they’d brought her back from Saint Hilde, but Jesper didn’t know how he or Wylan felt about letting her travel just yet, if at all. He planned on visiting his father very soon, and had invited Wylan to come along, but they hadn’t told this to his mother just yet. “Maybe someday.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marya hummed softly, returning back to her work, another landscape with Wylan in it. She still hadn’t completely eased out of her habit of adding Wylan to every single painting she made, but at least now she was beginning to recognize that he was sixteen now and not the child she had been forced to leave behind all those years ago. And today she’d painted Jesper instead of Wylan. So that must be an improvement? Jesper hoped it was because she simply enjoyed adding people to her paintings.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That looks nice,” he said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you. It’s the place where I grew up,” Marya replied, and when Jesper looked closer, he realized that it did look a lot like a Kerch countryside. She looked up from her painting to regard Jesper. “What is your family like, Jesper?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jesper had talked about Colm and the farm before, but perhaps she forgot. That happened often. The first few weeks that Marya had arrived at the mansion, Jesper and Wylan had to keep reminding her where exactly she was. Similar to the way that Wylan woke up in the middle of the night sometimes, terrified that his father was going to burst through the door and scream at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, I told you about Da,” he began.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know,” Marya interrupted. “But you never told me about your mother.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Oh. So she had remembered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Talking about Ma was something that simultaneously warmed Jesper’s heart and stabbed it in a million different places, but everyone deserved to know about Aditi Hilli.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My ma had just as much energy as I did,” Jesper said, and just remembering the way that she would run through the fields with him, or make chores seem fun in a way that he never thought possible, or do secret zowa things while giggling behind Da’s back made him ache with a familiar longing. “She taught me everything I know. Like… how to shoot.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marya nodded. “She must have been a wonderful teacher,” she commented. “I’ve seen you shoot. You’ve got a gift.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you.” He knew she likely had noticed the past tense; he braced himself for the next question.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What happened to her?” she asked softly, concern in her eyes. “If you don’t mind me asking.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine,” Jesper reassured her. “She died saving my best friend, Leoni. She was a Fabrikator, like me. But we don’t call it that back home.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marya reached out to pat him on the shoulder, though it didn’t really have the motherly effect she likely was attempting to convey, considering he was almost a head taller than her. “How old were you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Seven,” Jesper said, and he could feel tears threatening to close up his throat. It didn’t seem fair, how young he was. Some days he wished Ma had listened to his father, be selfish for once and stay home with them, live another day. But that would mean losing Leoni’s life. She hadn’t deserved to die at that age.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t have a mother,” Marya realized, and Jesper nodded, not trusting himself to speak. “Just like Wy.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Just like Wylan. It had been something they could bond over, before they’d found out Marya was actually alive and brought her home. Sometimes Jesper felt jealous of what he had, until he remembered that Wylan had never been allowed to grieve for his mother the way Jesper did, and Marya had gone through a pain that Aditi would never know. Still. He longed to make up for lost time the way Wylan could.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What was your mother’s name?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aditi,” he managed to choke out. “Aditi Hilli.” His mother truly had a beautiful name; as a child he loved bragging about it to everyone he knew. Now the word felt painful on his tongue, but it was good to say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aditi Hilli,” Marya tried out, and despite himself, Jesper felt laughter bubble up his throat as she struggled to pronounce the words, her Kerch accent prominent. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aditi Hilli,” Jesper said again, a little less painful this time as he drew out the syllables clearly enough for her to hear. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marya got it better the second time. Jesper was extremely proud of her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As Jesper was about to continue the rest of his walk, he heard Wylan’s voice call to him from across the gardens, clutching a stack of papers. He was always busy doing something.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Jesper! I was just—Oh, good morning, Mama,” Wylan greeted the two of them, striding across the grass to give Jesper and his mother each a quick embrace. Upon arriving in Ketterdam, Jesper had been shocked by the way people seemed to go out of their way to avoid touching each other. He was so used to hugging his loved ones multiple times a day back at home. To make up for lost time, Wylan and Jesper had brought back that tradition to the Van Eck household. It would never feel like Novyi Zem, but it certainly made Jesper feel more at home.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marya lingered a little longer in her embrace with Wylan, and just looking at them reminded Jesper of the way his mother would hold him, smelling of jurda flowers and gunpowder and the sun.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Marya’s head was buried in Wylan’s red-gold curls, but she looked up to smile at Jesper watching them embrace and held out an arm for him to join them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t going to replace what Jesper had back home. But he fit in perfectly.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>as always, this was beta read by the lovely @tessavioletandchill ! thank you alex for your stupid ass comments i love them and i love you</p></blockquote></div></div>
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